US Senators urge Project Libra partners to exercise caution

2019-10-12

In the form of three lengthy letters the US Senators have urged the Project Libra partners to tread carefully before moving ahead.

Following Paypal’s dismaying yet predictable exit from Facebook’s Project Libra consortium, two US Senators, Brian Schatz, and Sherrod Brown, have sent letters to the payment companies and Libra Association’s prime members, Visa, MasterCard, and Stripe, requesting them to act with prudence before taking the next steps in the partnership.

US warns Project Libra partners to approach carefully

The Senate members expressed grave concerns over Libra’s overall framework and its envision. It is no doubt that the project raises significant risks to its consumers, the government, financial institutions, and the global monetary system. Given Facebook’s inability to resolve these demonstrated risks, we request you to reconsider your association, the letter cites.

The letters also recapitulate the US government’s earlier raised concerns regarding terrorism funding and money laundering. The letter states that although Facebook is portraying itself to be independent of the overly complicated project, it will expose its gigantic-size user base to vulnerabilities arising from criminal and terrorist financing activities, thus interfering with the global monetary policies and undermining the financial system.

Facebook’s lawsuits only making things worse

Highlighting Facebook’s recent debacles with privacy and data management, the letters caution the member companies to rethink their strategy as one wrong move from the social media giant could make things go downhill for everyone involved.

The letters that came off as rather distressing alluded to a recent publication by the New York Times on how the social media companies were propagating child pornography videos and appealed to its counterparts to not contribute to global criminal activities.

Facebook lacks responsibility, US Senators

Facebook has no sense of responsibility and thus only considering positive aspects of the project. We urge you not to make the same mistake. Without being briefed on the potential hazards, do not move forward, the Senators pleaded through the letters.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, Sen. Brown spoke similarly, comparing the ambitions of the Libra project with a small child that continues causing catastrophic disasters, without learning a thing or two from it. And while Paypal’s exit demonstrates that withstanding the geopolitical pressures is no easy feat, more saga will continue to unfold with details emerging from Mastercard and Visa’s decisions.